News Update: Shale

Air Products recently held a dual celebration event at its Port Manatee, Florida, LNG Manufacturing Facility. Air Products’ employees, dignitaries and invited guests witnessed the ribbon cutting for a new LNG equipment test facility (ETF) and a groundbreaking for a facility manufacturing expansion project at the site.

The location of the ETF at the Port Manatee manufacturing facility consolidates Air Products’ LNG investments at the Florida location.

Air Products is also increasing the manufacturing capacity of the facility at Port Manatee by over 50 percent and held a groundbreaking for the expansion project. The use of LNG continues to increase around the world with strong energy demands in growing economies.

For more information, visit www.airproducts.com or call (610) 481-1340.

Lower natural gas prices save Appalachian consumers billions

Thanks to increased production and new technologies, which have decreased the price of natural gas, consumers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia saved more than $75 billion between 2006 and 2016, according to a combined multistate report released by Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA).

Households saved nearly $29.8 billion and commercial and industrial users saved more than $45.2 billion, according to the report, “Oil and Natural Gas a Boon to the Tri-State Region.” The analysis examines how the shale revolution in the Marcellus and Utica regions have helped energy consumers in the Tri-State Region increase disposable income, job growth and economic investment, as well as revitalize communities.

CEA’s analysis also found the oil and gas industry’s total economic value totaled $90.3 billion while employing over 656,000 workers in 2015.

For more information, visit www.consumerenergyalliance.org or call (720) 582-0242.

Study: No link, between natural gas production, methane in groundwater

After four years of studies, scientists have found no link between methane present in water wells outside of Fort Worth, Texas, and nearby gas production activities in the Barnett Shale. The methane appears to have migrated naturally to the wells from the shallower Strawn formations and not from the Barnett Shale, where natural gas production and hydraulic fracturing are occurring. By conducting the studies, researchers believe they have developed important methods that could be applied in similar situations to determine where methane originates in an environment.

The latest study, published in “Water Resources Research,” is the fifth and final in a series conducted by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan that looks at groundwater wells in the Barnett Shale area. The vast majority of the wells have little or no methane in the water, but a cluster of 11 wells near the Parker County and Hood County line had methane levels above 10 milligrams per liter of water. This level can require venting of well water systems to ensure the flammable gas does not accumulate to hazardous levels.

For more information, visit www.utexas.edu or call (512) 232-9623.

Shell gives green light to invest in LNG Canada

Shell Canada Energy, an affiliate of Royal Dutch Shell plc, has made a final investment decision (FID) on LNG Canada, a major LNG project in Kitimat, British Columbia, in which Shell has a 40-percent working interest. With LNG Canada’s joint venture participants also having made an FID, construction will start immediately, with first LNG expected before the middle of the next decade.

Shell’s 40-percent share of the project’s capital cost is within the company’s current overall capital investment guidance of $25 billion-$30 billion per year.

“We believe LNG Canada is the right project in the right place at the right time,” said Ben van Beurden, CEO, Royal Dutch Shell. “Supplying natural gas over the coming decades will be critical as the world transitions to a lower-carbon energy system.”